destynnee: Have any of you noticed that when you put in a Post that they will NOT go where you want them to? So, you end up putting a couple near each other just so that they will walk down the road you want them to...?
The AI for all such things has them wanting to initially (the very very first time) go in a certain direction (if it's available) when they first emerge from their building. (edit) I believe it's N. first). If that initial direction isn't available then they pick another direction at random (if they have more than one choice). They continue picking directions at random at every new road split, up to a certain distance, then they turn around and head home. They do have a certain tendency to repeat their patterns in cycles, once established, as long as the roads aren't altered. (pattern #1, different ones, then the #1 pattern again after so many cycles).
At any rate, this is why in C3 the "walker" issues arise. You have to place them with the way they behave in mind. eg, placing them at dead ends to force them to start walking in one direction initially, avoiding too many crossroad intersections, etc. There are pages and pages of "housing block" layout plans that work best for certain things, if one wants to get that technical about city planning, lol.
Edit:one thing to note is that in C3, buildings like granaries are considered intersections. Thus depending on your layout, you may see random walkers enter one and just sorta mill around aimlessly inside it for a long time (bouncing back and forth inside) then "go home". Gardens also serve as "roads" when random walkers are going home (not when they're still patrolling) as they count as the "shortest direction back home."
2nd edit: if you build a straight line road that goes N to S, then plop a lot of Eng. Posts or Prefectures at the N. end of this road, if my memory serves you can then watch them all emerge and head N first. It's amusing.
